Presidential Election of 1912: A Resource Guide

The digital collections of the Library of Congress contain a wide variety of material associated with the presidential election of 1912, including photographs, political cartoons, broadsides, newspaper articles, sheet music, sound recordings, and films. This guide compiles links to digital materials related to the presidential election of 1912 that are available throughout the Library of Congress Web site. In addition, it provides links to external Web sites focusing on the 1912 election and a selected bibliography.

The Printed Ephemera collection comprises 28,000 primary-source items dating from the seventeenth century to the present and encompasses key events and eras in American history. While the broadside format represents the bulk of the collection, there are a significant number of leaflets and some pamphlets.

This collection includes the autobiography of Robert La Follette (1855-1925), which traces the political life and accomplishments of this eminent Republican politician from his election as district attorney for Dane County, Wisconsin in 1880 to the presidential campaign of 1912, when his bid to dislodge President William Howard Taft was pushed aside by former president Theodore Roosevelt on the Progressive Party's national ticket.

This presentation features 104 films which record events in Roosevelt's life from the Spanish-American War in 1898 to his death in 1919. Besides containing scenes of Roosevelt, these films include views of world figures, politicians, monarchs, and friends and family members of Roosevelt who influenced his life and the era in which he lived. Four sound recordings made by Roosevelt while running as a Progressive (Bull Moose) candidate for president of the United States in 1912 are also included.

This site allows you to search and view millions of historic American newspaper pages from 1836-1922. Search this collection to find hundreds of newspaper articles about the presidential election of 1912.

The PAE is a guide to performing arts resources at the Library of Congress and provides information about the Library's unsurpassed collections of scores, sheet music, audio recordings, films, photographs, and other materials.

Includes the following sheet music from the 1912 presidential election:

The Library of Congress presents the National Jukebox, which makes historical sound recordings available to the public free of charge. Recordings in the Jukebox were issued on record labels now owned by Sony Music Entertainment, which has granted the Library of Congress a gratis license to stream acoustical recordings. The National Jukebox contains sound recordings of speeches delivered by Wilson, Taft, and Roosevelt during the 1912 presidential campaign.

On June 9, 1902, Woodrow Wilson was unanimously elected president of Princeton University, a position he held until he resigned in 1910 to run for governor of New Jersey. In 1910, he received an unsolicited nomination for the governorship of New Jersey, which he eagerly accepted. As governor, he developed a platform of progressive liberalism in matters of domestic political economy. In 1912, the Democratic Party nominated him as their presidential candidate.

On the evening of June 22, 1912, former President Theodore Roosevelt asked his supporters to leave the floor of the Republican National Convention in Chicago. Republican progressives reconvened in Chicago's Orchestra Hall and endorsed the formation of a national progressive party. When formally launched later that summer, the new Progressive Party chose Roosevelt as its presidential nominee.

William Howard Taft served as both president of the United States and chief justice of the Supreme Court. He was born on September 15, 1857, in Cincinnati, Ohio. Progressive Republicans openly challenged Taft in the Congressional elections of 1910 and in the Republican presidential primaries of 1912. When Taft won the Republican nomination from a party in disarray, the Progressives organized a rival party and selected Theodore Roosevelt to run against Taft in the general election. Roosevelt's Bull Moose candidacy split the Republican vote and helped to elect Democrat Woodrow Wilson.

This HarpWeek Web site features political cartoons from Harper's Weekly, Leslie's Illustrated Weekly, Vanity Fair, Puck, Judge, and American Political Prints, 1766-1876: A Catalog of the Collections in the Library of Congress. It provides explanations of the historical context and images of each cartoon, campaign overviews, biographical sketches, a review of the era's major issues, and other valuable information related to the 1864 presidential election.

This National Archives Web site contains political cartoons from the 1912 presidential election and teaching activities correlated to the National History Standards and National Standards for Civics and Government.

National Democratic Platform: Progress in Every Plank, Adopted by the Democratic Convention at Baltimore, July 2, 1912, for President Woodrow Wilson of New Jersey, for Vice-President Thomas Marshall of Indiana, Issued by the Democratic National Committee. New York: Democratic National Committee, 1912. [Catalog Record] [Full Text]

Official Report of the Proceedings of the Democratic National Convention, Held in Baltimore, Maryland, June 25, 26, 27, 28, 29 and July 1 and 2, 1912, Resulting in the Nomination of Hon. Woodrow Wilson (of New Jersey) for President and Hon. Thomas Riley Marshall (of Indiana) for Vice-President, Comp. by Urey Woodson. Milton W. Blumenberg, Official Reporter. Chicago: The Peterson Linotyping Company, 1912. [Catalog Record] [Full Text]

Official Report of the Proceedings of the Sixteenth Republican National Convention, Held in Chicago, Illinois, June 7, 8, 9 and 10, 1916, Resulting in the Nomination of Charles Evans Hughes, of New York, for President and the Nomination of Charles Warren Fairbanks, of Indiana, for Vice-President; Reported by George L. Hart, Official Reporter, Pub. Under the Supervision of the General Secretary of the Convention. New York: The Tenny Press, 1916. [Catalog Record] [Full Text]

Bryan, William Jennings. A Tale of Two Conventions; Being an Account of the Republican and Democratic National Conventions of June, 1912, With an Outline of the Progressive National Convention of August in the Same Year, by William Jennings Bryan, with Selections of Notable Speeches, Including Those of Theodore Roosevelt, Mr. Bryan, Elihu Root and Alton B. Parker. New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1912. [Catalog Record] [Full Text]

Payne, George Henry. The Birth of the New Party; or, Progressive Democracy. A Complete Official Account of the Formation and Organization of the Progressive Party. The Candidates, the Platform, the Principles and the Political, Moral and Industrial Issues Fully Discussed; by George Henry Payne. With Special Contributions by a Dozen Great Americans, Including Col. Theodore Roosevelt, Gifford Pinchot, ex-Senator Beveridge, etc., etc., on Conservation, Woman Suffrage, Country Life Improvement, High Cost of Living, the Tariff, the Trusts, the Initiative, the Referendum, the Recall, Direct Primaries, etc., etc. Introduction by Senator Joseph M. Dixon. Naperville, Ill.: J.L. Nichols & Company, 1912. [Catalog Record] [Full Text]

Bryan, William Jennings. A Tale of Two Conventions; Being an Account of the Republican and Democratic National Conventions of June, 1912, with an Outline of the Progressive National Convention of August in the Same Year. New York: Funk & Wagnalls Company, 1912.
LC Call Number: JK2263.1912 .B7 [Catalog Record] [Full Text]